Move In Day

Everything was unloaded by noon on Friday.  Bryan was our driver who brought all our things to us.  We were blessed to have two of my sisters and their families come out to help us unpack.  We had our kitchen in working order by the weekend.  I was/am incredibly grateful for all the help that my family gave to us during this time.    

The boys were excited for the back yard.  They wanted to play with the hose right away.  They also loved the garage.  After a few days the boys discovered the cool stairs and how to slide down them.  At this time in November the boys really love to wear their 'slippy jammies' and slide down the stairs on their bellies.  I think we will soon see a lot of wear on the stairs.

This was one of Bryan's dogs that Parker enjoyed playing with.

I was excited that we would have a yard and so I bought a slip and slide for the kids to play with while we unpacked.  I didn't quite expect it to be too cold for them to play.  We also don't have much of a hill to put it on, the yard is kind of flat which will be great for playing ball on.

My little sister had her birthday celebration with us.  We enjoyed some yummy red velvet cake and ice cream.  We are excited to be closer to our family.  And we look forward to what is in store for us here in Colorado.

Route 66...

Well the route we actually took was Interstate 70.  The drive went really well.  Our loaders were able to get us packed up in the truck pretty quick and we checked out.  We left around 5:00 and made it a few hours before stopping for the night.  We had plenty for the kids to do and when there was a rough go we let them watch a show or if they had done really well then they earned a short movie.  Lincoln really loved getting one on one attention from my parents.  

My sister sent us a new movie to watch, Tom and Jerry.  Lincoln traveled with my mom and dad in the Civ and colored a lot of pictures using the Color Wonder stuff.  Once the other two were out in the van we let Parker watch the movie.  We love when he laughs like that.

Caroline did awesome.  Newborns are pretty easy to drive with.  They sleep a lot.

I didn't realize that the Mississippi was around because we were looking at the arch and looking for the Missouri sign.

Sunsets.  I love them.  We didn't see enough of them in Georgia.

I let Henry color this page while we were out at a restaurant.  He took the crayon and colored on the tub because there must not have been any more room to color on this paper.     

In one of our last legs of the trip we had all the boys.  My parents took Caroline.

Right when I took the picture I realized that I had missed the welcome to Kansas sign, this was the best I got.

Henry continued his coloring skills onto the bed but this time with a pen that he found on the nightstand.

Once we made it to Colorado Springs we stayed in a hotel that had a slide in the swimming pool.  We met my sisters there.  We were really tired but early the next morning we started to unload the truck.

Caroline's Blessing

August 5, 2012

I remember thinking to myself as I saw my ward family and said good-bye them that I thought I would see them the next day or soon.  I remember saying 'see you later' to one of my really good friends and I didn't give her a hug good bye.  I really thought I would see her later.  We did enjoy this time because we had our family with us to participate in the blessing.  We also had many of our great friends.  We wanted our ward family to be a part of Caroline's blessing day.  She was only a week old.  We went to take pictures out by the temple with our family.  We snagged a few with friends too.  I must say that I will incredibly miss this group of girls.  Lincoln didn't join in the photo but this was our little group that did a ton of stuff together.  I am lost without Lindy suggesting fun things to do.  

Miss Danielle also had a great group of girls by her side.  We were so happy to have become friends with her and her family.  Who will we call for a late night blessing?

Our family photo.  Thank you so much to our family for supporting us this whole week.  We are very grateful.

I didn't get photo's with all of my best buds in Atlanta but I do love them all.  I really grew to love all of my friends so much more as our last months were coming to an end.  A wonderful surprise on this blessing day was to see Emily.  She had been home sick for many months and I thought I would not get the chance to see her again.  This was a perfect day for her to be feeling good to come to church.  It was a cherry on top of the ice cream sundae.

These are a few of Caroline's blessing photos that Aunt Kim took.  Thanks Kim for all the pictures you took for us this week.  You are awesome.

Our Last Home Game.

August 3, 2012

The boys had to get in one last game before we moved.  Willie's dad always loved the Braves and so this was the night they picked to go.  I told Willie to make sure to get pictures outside of the stadium because we were always rushing to get in to other games but this time they were there with time to take a few photos.  My parents went with Willie and his brother and dad.

We were at the game where this number was retired, Bobby Cox.  Maybe next year Willie can go when Chippers number gets retired.

The sad part was that it rained on the fun.  They had to wait for a storm to pass through.  A lot of the action in the game happened before they made it in.  All in all though I think they still enjoyed their time at the game.  I wish I could have gone as well but someone had to take care of the newborn.  Thanks Joan for watching Caroline. :)

Packing up.

August 5, 2012

As much as I like to take pictures I didn't get many of our things getting packed.  I usually never do mainly because I'm the one packing over a long period of time.  This time everything we owned was packed in one day!  I never knew of such luxuries.  It may never happen again.  A couple of our friends moved before us in this same fashion and gave us some tips.  You take care of the packers and they will take care of your stuff.  A nice thing to do is buy them lunch and give them water or sports drinks.  

To keep the kids entertained and out of the way we first had them playing with bubble wrap.  Eventually we had them with family for swimming.  I think they swam for about 5 hours with a little lunch break.  Oh how I will miss having a pool close by.  Thanks Jared and Rach for all the times you took our kids.

Moving day.  Man these guys were tough.  They would put stuff on their backs and carry it up the stairs.  Once again we didn't get many pictures of this.  We treated this group to lunch as well.

The boys wanted to watch the back of the truck go up and down.  So we sat and watched for a little bit as our things were loaded up.  My dad was wonderful and helped them load up.  The truck driver who was in charge tried to pay my dad for the work that he did.

Parker excited for the move.  This particular truck was the one that would take our things to the big truck later.

A look at our apartment one last time.

Henry was helping to clean up.  I was so glad that we checked out of our apartment with the head maintenance guy, Gene.  It was lucky because we had left stains on the carpet and marker on the walls and we got out without having to pay extra.  We liked our maintenance guys they were always so kind to us.  Thanks Gene, Michael and the one whom I could never understand his name.